REAL MONEY STRATEGIES.
REAL RESULTS.
“It was a great learning experience with so much information from everyone in the breakout rooms and from the administration of Strive.”
“My perspective [about money] has changed. I have started to view it as more of a 'problem-solving' situation, than something that I am stuck at. “
“Since joining the program, I've started setting up my personal financial goals. I've been managing my expenses within the budget and making mindful and conscious choices in my decisions.”
“It was really valuable to have each group work on a different scenario and then we discuss it as a larger group and learn different avenues of how you would approach it.
The different perspectives got me thinking through different things each time, there isn’t just one solution.”
“The program correctly identifies the needs for newcomers…helps them navigate with issues by providing them with appropriate examples, tools and strategies.”
“Since joining the program, I've started setting up my personal financial goals. I've been managing my expenses within the budget and making mindful and conscious choices in my decisions.”
“As I am still unemployed, there was no change in terms of income. However, the expenses are now more visible and controllable. So yes, my financial concerns are now under control.”
“The biggest win of a program like this is the increase in the ability to confront the subject of Money."
“I have realized the significance of implementing a personal financial plan as a safeguard against long-term financial insecurity. I've enhanced my understanding and skills in developing a roadmap for problem-solving processes and strategies.”
“I realized that the 60 dollars a month I'm spending on coffee, I'm borrowing that from future me!
I'm gonna have to pay that back to myself at some point so I have to decide.
Do I want to make it way harder for myself? Or do I want to do stuff now to make it easier?”
“Just hearing stories… like, everyone’s experience, felt like, this building block to more self-esteem.
Because you look back and do a self-check.
Well no, I’m not useless. I’ve done this. I’ve done this. I’ve done this. And I’ve done this.
And you go. Oh wow. That’s alot.“
“It made me realize how much satisfaction I get from goal setting, goal achieving.
It's a big deal for me and it gave me some insight as to why I can have anxiety around it.
But in turn, when I achieve my goals, and do really well it gives me motivation.
It eased anxiety.”
“Something that I liked about the workshop is the fact that it made finance more humane.
I expected we’d learn how to save, invest, do taxes, but the workshop showed that your other needs are important as well and you're spending habits are up to you.
The important thing is you have to make your goals achievable and ensure they align with your actual needs. That was good to learn.”
“I wasn't really paying attention to how much debt I was getting in.
And I was kind of just, ‘Oh yeah, I'll pay it off later. I'll think about it later.’
But then this program made me realize that right now is the time that you should be saving up for all that debt, because later on it's going to accumulate interest.”
How real Canadians manage their money
Patricia is now happy with her income, owns a house and has set a goal to grow to a VP level which will give her a significant salary bump. She says her approach requires discipline and can be painful. Renovations on their house are now starting to annoy her. It was extremely challenging to move home and work 10 weeks for free with a 3 hour commute, only to get a starter job at $27,000. But without other resources, this has been the most effective path she could find to build her career, income and net worth.
After 15 years of struggling in the system, Aimee began to believe there had to be a better way. Knowing that patients wanted better care, that the industry is growing with people wanting to stay home longer, and understanding the funding system Aimee decided she could be better off by working independently.
Daniel grew up in communist Eastern Europe where 99% of people were lower middle class. He knew that counting on government will lead you to be somewhere between poor and lower middle class. He saw that if you wanted anything over and above the basics, be it, experiences, things or even money for the sake of money, you had to work and hustle for it.
Since completing her Masters in 2004, Margaret has worked in three different industries, in 4 different organizations. She has tripled her salary from her starting point of just under $50,000 annually. She accomplished this through a skillful maneuvering of her career towards higher paying general management roles, fierce negotiation skills and 4 core strategies...
Isaac is a disciplined planner! Not just a thinker or list maker, a full out planner who has the discipline to invest significant time and effort thinking about the future and making it easier for himself. I believe this long term thinking has been a core enabler of his success.
Faisal is successful because he is clear about where he is going, strategically looks for opportunities to enable him to get there and recognizes the importance of meaningful relationships
Like most high school students, Kavith began thinking about post secondary education. He started to understand the costs. He knew that he could get OSAP but wanted to be proactive. He worked as hard as he could to get his grades up. He spent about 5 hours a week thinking about what he was good at and looking for scholarship and contest opportunities. He applied for and competed in a number of opportunities and was ultimately successful in securing $45 000 in funding for school from more than 10 separate providers, with awards ranging in value from $100 to $30 000.
Esfir came to Canada, driven by the desire for a career where, her contributions would be valued based on their merit and as equal to those of her male colleagues. She was frustrated that as a woman, she didn’t get meaningful opportunities at work. “They didn’t see me as a professional… I didn’t have equity and no matter how good I was, I couldn’t get any higher”.
During his time as a project manager, Ricardo became friends with other project managers and he learned his salary was $10,000 below theirs. He was making 33% less than those with the exact same job.
This complexity of entrepreneurship has taken up the majority of Rohan’s brain space and time. It has prevented him from pushing forward on some personal financial pieces. In particular, Rohan was recently dealing with the high costs of credit card debt. As self-employed and with no assets, he has had difficulty getting reasonably priced loans from traditional banks.
As the saying goes, when life serves you lemons, you make lemonade. Despite the challenges, that is what Avani a single mother or two managed to do. Avani immigrated to Canada almost 15 years ago; she was driven by the the opportunity to live in a country that offered economic growth, high standards of living, best in class education and peace of mind.
Strive Insights
According to a survey by TransUnion, a Canada-based credit reporting agency, 60 percent of Canadians said they were targeted with online, email, phone call, or text messaging fraud in the last three months, of which 10 percent fell victim.
“[It] was truly inspiring and eye-opening for me. It proved to be helpful and beneficial, prompting deep reflection from perspectives I hadn't considered before.”